One of my favorite stories about Karsten Solheim is his philosophy about the golf swing. He believed that the more a golfer could keep the club face square to the target line through the impact zone, the straighter his or her shots would fly. Actually, that was good thinking. But it’s how Karsten tried to accomplish it that seemed strange to most golfers. When he swung the club, after he made ball contact he would keep his hands stiff and his arms straight on his follow through. The result was t … [Read more...]

Karsten Solheim was born in Norway in 1911. His family emigrated to the U.S. in 1913 and settled in Seattle, Washington. (That’s where I was later born and reared.) Karsten’s dad was a shoe repairman. Karsten’s first job was working for his father soling shoes. But that didn’t seem to satisfy his inquisitive mind, so he soon quit. Surprisingly, he eventually started selling pots and pans door-to-door in Seattle. However, Karsten really wanted to be a mechanical engineer. So, he enrolled one year … [Read more...]